The present invention relates in general to a flasher device and more specifically to an urgent braking device used in conjunction with a vehicular brake light system to flash brake lights of a vehicle upon deceleration.
Vehicles have long incorporated devices for conveying the present actions or future intent of a driver to others, thereby providing notice of a vehicle's motion and preventing accidents. These devices have ranged from signal flags during the early days of the automobile to and including the present day turn signal indicators and brake light indicators. Such devices are either directly activated by the driver himself or indirectly activated in response to a driver's action.
In particular, the brake lights of a vehicle are activated when the driver depresses the brake pedal, thereby providing notice to those following that the driver's vehicle is decelerating. A shortcoming of the present day vehicle brake light system is that the brake lights convey only whether the vehicle is decelerating and do not convey the rate of deceleration, thus trailing drivers must guess or judge for themselves the rate of deceleration. The current brake light system used in vehicles therefore requires not only good reaction time by those following but also requires some ability to judge deceleration rates, thereby furthering the likelihood that the overall reaction time will increase and more accidents will occur. For these same reasons, the present brake light system used in cars today also results in increased congestion on city streets and highways. Drivers tend to over-estimate deceleration rates and brake excessively, the cumulative effect resulting in traffic jams.
Devices which indicate both vehicular deceleration and the rate of vehicular deceleration are known which help reduce the time-consuming decision process and reduce reaction times. One such device by Poulos, U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,368, is an Enhanced Deceleration Condition Disclosing Device. Among other electrical components such as transistors, resistors, capacitors and diodes, the device by Poulos includes a normally-open inertial switch which closes to engage a flashing circuit when the vehicle undergoes an enhanced degree of deceleration. Another device by Plozner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,330, is a Mercury Inertial Transducer and Light-emitting Indicator for Motor Vehicles. This device actuates a series of lights when braking occurs; with more severe braking, an increased number of lights will be lit. Hassinger, U.S. Pat. No. 3,760,353, discloses an Emergency Vehicular Warning System which includes a normally-open mercury switch which activates a flasher circuit to flash the brake lights of the motor vehicle and signal others that a sudden stop is being made. Finally Arsoy, U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,723, discloses a Vehicle Pedal Hard Braking Switch which is activated in response to travel of the brake pedal in excess of a predetermined limit to energize a hard brake warning light.
Where a brake light system is involved, important safety issues are presented, and brake light system failure can result in an increased number of accidents. A need therefore exists for an automatic urgent braking device which involves a minimum number of electronic devices, thereby rendering the device less prone to failure. An inexpensive urgent braking device is also desired, thus making the device more attractive to the general public as either an original equipment purchase or as an aftermarket add-on device which will increase the likelihood that a larger quantity of such devices will be installed. An urgent braking device is also needed which is compact and inexpensive to construct, thereby facilitating mass production and reducing both the cost and the selling price.